Pre-Gamin’: Blackhawks vs Lightning (7:30 PM CT) – Lineups, Broadcast Info, Game Thread, More

Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson was sick and did not attend the morning skate today. Derek King was the designated coach to speak with the media, so when we saw the lineup below on the board in the dressing room there were obviously questions. King confirmed the coaches have talked about going back to the top-nine they had to start the season that was successful in October, but would not absolutely confirm that it would stick when Richardson is back this evening. So stay tuned… but we’re doing with the lineup that was on the board for Chicago.

UPDATE: In warm-ups it looks like the Blackhawks are going to roll with seven defensemen. Caleb Jones was on the ice and Tyler Johnson was not. Tyler is indeed a late scratch.

Broadcast Info

Puck Drop: 7:30 PM CT
TV: NBCSN
Radio: WGN 720 AM

Expected Lineups

Chicago Blackhawks 

Andreas Athanasiou — Max Domi — Patrick Kane
Philipp Kurashev — Jonathan Toews — Taylor Raddysh
Boris Katchouk — Jason Dickinson — Sam Lafferty
____________ — Reese Johnson — Colin Blackwell

Jake McCabe — Seth Jones
Isaak Phillips — Connor Murphy
Jack Johnson — Ian Mitchell
Caleb Jones

🥅 Alex Stalock

Tampa Bay Lightning

Brandon Hagel – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Anthony Cirelli – Steven Stamkos – Alex Killorn
Ross Colton – Nick Paul – Pat Maroon
Vlad Namestikov – Pierre-Édouard Bellemare – Corey Perry

Victor Hedman – Zach Bogosian
Mikhail Sergechev – Nick Perbix
Ian Cole – Erik Cernak

🥅 Brian Elliott

Injury Report

Chicago Blackhawks

Jarred Tinordi is on IR.

Tampa Bay Lightning

N/A

What to Watch For

  • The Blackhawks took Monday off after two brutal performances over the weekend. They closed out the 2022 calendar year with a dud in Columbus and started the new year blowing a multi-goal lead. We’ll see if they give us more than 20 good minutes tonight.
  • I’ve wanted to see the Blackhawks get back to the top three lines they used in October once they had a full compliment of healthy forwards. We might see that tonight.
  • Tampa Bay is going to play a huge role in the future of the Blackhawks. So, if they lost their last two to get some separation between themselves and other bottom feeders in the league, maybe they beat Tampa to help their other picks? (Welcome to the crazy train!)
  • I wonder if the Blackhawks will have any kind of welcome back video for Hagel tonight…
  • Get Caught Up

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    Tab Bamford has been writing about the Chicago Blackhawks for almost two decades. He joined Bleacher Nation as the lead Blackhawks writer in May 2022. Tab is a member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association and is the author of two books about the Blackhawks: "100 Things Blackhawks Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die" (Triumph Books) and "Chicago Blackhawks: An Illustrated Timeline" (Reedy Press, 2021). Find him on Twitter/X/Instagram/Threads at @The1Tab

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